TEXARKANA, Texas - The Pleasant Grove Independent School District Board of Trustees will look to approve its first Summer Reading Academy for kindergarten through 11th grade in a regular meeting Thursday evening.
The district is launching the Academy from June 7 to July 1. Specific students will be invited to attend the four-week session to receive targeted reading instruction.
PG's goal is to hire 17 teachers for the academy who may teach half or full days. Teachers will receive two days of training prior to the first day of instruction, as well as have 1.5 hours between the morning and afternoon sessions for planning.
According to the meeting agenda, the academy will cost $115,000 in State Compensatory Education funds. The funds proposed to use are earmarked for students identified as at-risk.
Each school district is required to develop an SCE plan for the provision of compensatory education services, such as tutoring, remediation or other interventions, for students who meet the state criteria of "at-risk." The goal of compensatory education is to reduce any disparity in student performance and to reduce any disparity in rates of high school completion.
Transportation, if needed, will also be provided.
The board will consider the approval of additional instructional positions for the 2021-2022 school year.
"As our district continues to grow in student enrollment numbers and in our academic structure, the need to hire additional staff becomes evident," according to information in the agenda packet. "To provide the necessary time at our high school to effectively implement collaborative teaming as a part of our Professional Learning Community Initiative, we are asking for one core teacher per content area (four teachers)."
There are currently seven classroom teachers in 2nd grade and 5th grade. Due to enrollment growth, these grade levels will need eight classroom teachers. This will result in a total of two additional teachers.
Administration anticipates the cost of these positions to be a maximum of $575,000. Career and Technical Education will pay approximately $207,000, which will bring the grand total down to $368,000.
The board will also consider the approval of an engagement letter with Wilf and Henderson to perform the district's annual external audit for the 2020-2021 school year.
The approval of a five-year contract with Windstream Kinetic for Internet service will also be recommended to the board for approval.
A Request For Proposal went out to vendors in January, and Windstream Kinetic had the winning bid, lowering the monthly cost to the district by one half while tripling the current bandwidth speed.
(The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Central Services Boardroom, 8500 North Kings Highway.)